Agreement may free up water for Southern Nevada

Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2003 | 11:15 a.m.

A 5-year-old feud between Lincoln County and the Southern Nevada Water Authority over water rights may end next month, and that would put Las Vegas one step closer to more water for its booming population.

The authority and the county have drafted a tentative agreement to settle the verbal and legal battle, officials said Tuesday.

The end of the dispute provides a framework for the development of water resources in the county northeast of Clark County -- and could provide Las Vegas area consumers with water. But authority staff members said it would likely be years before any Lincoln County water comes out of local taps.

The agreement essentially grants water from some valleys, or hydrologic basins, to the authority and others to Lincoln County. If approved by both boards, the deal would dispense with a dispute that has been in front of the Nevada state engineer for more than a year.

The state engineer is the final arbiter of who gets how much water. The water authority has applications with the state engineer throughout Lincoln County for the rights to draw out ground water, but those applications were formally opposed by Lincoln County and its water-rights partner, private corporation Vidler Water Co.

Pat Mulroy, water authority general manager, said the agreement could be an important tool to ultimately use water from the north. Population growth, drought and legal restrictions on the amount of water Clark County can draw from Lake Mead mean that the region has to seek other sources to quench the thirsts of local consumers, she said.

Before the state will allow anyone to draw large amounts of water from the ground, testing will have to be done to determine how much can safely be withdrawn without harming other water supplies or the environment, Mulroy said.

But if the county and authority boards approve the agreement, "the time to begin testing is now," she said.

Kay Brothers, authority deputy general manager, said the amount of water that is ultimately available is not known. An optimistic guess is that Clark County could receive 100,000 acre-feet per year from Lincoln County, about enough water for a half-million people or one-third of the amount now used locally.

A similar amount of water would be reserved for Lincoln County's use, she said.

"This is just a very, very broad estimate," Brothers said.

Mulroy said the agreement is important because it gives a framework for further development of water resources in Lincoln County.

"This is huge progress in the right direction," she said. "If this agreement moves forward, the next step is to begin hearings before the state engineer on the basins we are retaining."

The ongoing three-year drought has shown that Southern Nevada can be hit hard by reduced flows on the Colorado River, which now provides about 85 percent of the water used in Clark County, Mulroy said.

"It makes it imperative that you have some flexibility and some different water sources," she said. "To protect an urban environment against drought and contaminations and anything else that might happen, you have to have a multitude of sources."

Lincoln County Manager Doug Carriger said five public hearings would be held starting Monday around the county to get comments from residents about the proposed agreement.

"Water is a huge issue in rural Nevada and we want to make sure the public is informed," Carriger said. Two county commissioners will travel to the communities of Panaca, Pioche, Alamo, Caliente and Rachel on successive nights to outline the details of the proposed settlement.

Steve Hartman, an attorney for Vidler, called the tentative agreement a good first step. He said both Lincoln County and Vidler always wanted to work with the water authority.

Vidler, he said, would still be involved in helping Lincoln County with its economic diversification plans. Hartman said it was the water company that helped Lincoln County to get the talks progressing.

"Hopefully this will end the conflict," said Hartman. "Everybody needs to get along down the road."

Dorothy Timian-Palmer, Vidler chief operating officer, said the agreement could begin a new chapter in the formerly stormy relationship between the water authority, a municipal, not-for-profit agency, and her company, a for-profit corporation with a business plan modeled on selling water from rural areas to urban area.

"This is a very positive development for everyone," Timian-Palmer said.